About El Momma

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A day in the life of the El-Hakam Five

Well, we are finally getting into a routine, sort of. I don't know how one calls it a routine. But, let's just say, we are finally getting into what is our normal life. Normal? now that is a funnier word than routine. Things are definitely not normal around here. But, they are our version of normal. So, here is what a normal day around here consists of. Bakri is usually the first to wake up in the morning. My hope is that he'll wake up at 7:30, but he usually gets up before then. We try to convince him to lay down and be quiet until 7:30, but that also doesn't work. By the time 7:30 hits, everyone is awake. Maddux wakes up happy and ready to get dressed and get downstairs for breakfast. We still don't have a fully functioning kitchen, so breakfast is usually a cup of milk, a kolache and/or a pancake on a stick. By the time we convince Bakri to go to the potty and get dressed it is usually after 8. We then make our way downstairs as a family and the boys eat their breakfast. Moustapha takes Bakri to school (school is a 2 minute drive and 12 minute walk from our house) on his way to work. Currently, Moustapha is working out of his dad's office at MEECO which is about a 12 minute drive from our house. He does all of his law office work out of there. And he also does other work for his dad's company. He has been approached recently about a couple of different attorney position opening up at companies that are downtown (which is really close to our house.) So, when Moustapha takes Bakri to school, that leaves me, Maddux and Trinity to enjoy the rest of the morning together. Trinity usually has her morning meal and then heads back to sleep after some "awake" time. Maddux enjoys singing to her, talking to her and giving her lots of kisses. Then, its just me and Maddux. He loves what he calls his "lessons." We have flashcards that he likes to look at while I tell him what everything is. Now, he actually tells me what things are. His favorites are air vehicles- like Flyer I, Space Shuttle Columbia and Montgolfier Brothers Balloon. You should hear him say Montgolfier Brothers...it is very cute! After we finish with Maddux's lesson time, it is usually time for baby sister to wake up. Lately, my mom will pick up Bakri from school- his school only lasts for 3 hours. So, it is a very quick turnaround. My mom doesn't live that close, but she comes into town to do her physical therapy as part of her recovery from heart surgery and she'll pick Bakri up or help me out for a little while afterwards. Once Bakri gets home, it is time for lunch, naps and fun time when we wake up. Nap time has become more of a challenge since Bakri and Maddux started sharing a room. So, Maddux naps in their room and Bakri naps in my room. As long as everybody is napping, I don't really think its important where they are napping. :-) I just desperately need all of the kids to take a nap. It is my time to try and get SOMETHING done around here.Once we wake up from naptime, we do something fun. Bakri likes to watch Sesame Street as a reward and yesterday we walked down to the baseball park and ran the bases and then played on the playground for an hour. By the time we finished, it was time to go home and prepare dinner. My sweet friends from Tapestry have been bringing us meals since we brought Trinity home. So, I usually just need to heat dinner up. By the time we sit down for dinner, Moustapha is usually home to join us. After dinner, we play, read, work on puzzles. Bakri has a 50 piece dinosaur puzzle with 14 different dinosaurs pictured on it, that he has completely mastered. He takes it a part and puts it together completely on his own. It is pretty impressive.

Our bedtime routine consists of baths, putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, reading one book, singing "hush little baby" along with the book by Sylvia Long and getting into bed. Once the boys are in their bed we recite "good night moon," turn off the light, say The Lord's Prayer and pray together, say good night and close the door. And that is the end of the day! At that point, I've been going to sleep too...its only 8:30 or 9, but I am exhausted!

Here is Trinity after her first Sunday at church. We went to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church this week. We have been visiting there since Bakri went to their vacation bible school in July. I've also been talking with them about the contemporary worship service and possibly leading worship. So, I am going to be leading for the next 5 sundays as they begin their search for a worship leader. I am totally excited about this opportunity. I just hope I can get the players together soon. I still need a bass guitar player and lead guitar player. It's difficult finding christian players that are available on sundays at such short notice. Trinity wore my cherry dress for her first sunday at church. My mom saved this dress along with a few other things that I wore as a baby. Doesn't she look beautiful? She is 3 weeks old in this photo.